What is DLSS 3? Everything you need to know

During the GTC 2022 Keynote, Nvidia announced two new GPUs and a myriad of new features, one of which is DLSS 3.

Nvidia revealed two new GPUs during its Keynote event. The RTX 4000 Series, also known as Ada Lovelace, includes the Nvidia RTX 4080 and the Nvidia RTX 4090.

And with this new hardware came a batch of new features and upgraded software, with DLSS 3 coming in as the latest variation of Nvidia’s own DLSS software.

If you’re interested in learning more about DLSS 3 and how it can improve your gaming experiences, make sure you read on.

What is DLSS?

If you want an in-depth look at what DLSS is, make sure to check out our explainer. But to put it simply, DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) is an Nvidia RTX feature that uses AI to boost a game’s framerate performance higher.

DLSS essentially generates images at a lower resolution to help lessen the strain on the GPU, thus allowing for a frame rate boost. The AI then adds more pixels to the game to upscale the frames to a more desired resolution, making your game look more impressive while still taking advantage of a higher frame rate.

What is DLSS 3?

At its core, DLSS 3 uses the same concept as the original version; allowing users to boost frame rates and keep a high resolution without overstraining the GPU.

However, DLSS 3 has improved on the technology, delivering up to four times the performance of brute-force rendering. DLSS 3 is also powered by new Lovelace technology, using the 4th-gen Tensor Cores and Optical Flow Accecelorator to introduce a new capability called Optical Multi Frame Generation.

Optical Multi Frame Generation can produce entirely new frames instead of just pixels. This helps to reduce visual anomalies when AI needs to render complex elements like lighting, reflections or particles in the dust.

These frames are then fed through a neural network which analyses the data and produces a new frame for each game-rendered frame; combining the DLSS-generated frames with the DLSS super-resolution frames means that it can create seven-eights of the displayed pixels with AI, resulting in frames being boosted by up to four times, compared to a PC that isn’t using DLSS.

It also allows for the software to work even in CPU-bound scenarios, meaning that complex and physics-heavy games can still be rendered at up to twice the framerate that the CPU would originally be able to compute the game. Ultimately, this means that gamers will be able to experience high frame rates and improved graphics while gaming, making the worlds look more immersive.

DLSS 3 will debut on October 12 2022 and is supported in the Nvidia RTX 4000 Series, meaning that you will need to splash out on the new hardware to experience the technology.

What games support DLSS 3?

Nvidia has claimed that more than 35 games and applications have announced support for DLSS 3, with the software coming to popular game engines, such as Unity and Unreal Engine.

Here is a list of all the games that have announced support for DLSS 3:

• A Plague Tale: Requiem
• Atomic Heart
• Black Myth: Wukong
• Bright Memory: Infinite
• Chernobylite
• Conqueror’s Blade
• Cyberpunk 2077
• Dakar Rally
• Deliver Us Mars
• Destroy All Humans! 2 – Reprobed
• Dying Light 2 Stay Human
• F1 22
• F.I.S.T.: Forged In Shadow Torch
• Frostbite Engine
• Hitman 3
• Hogwarts Legacy
• ICARUS
• Jurassic World Evolution 2
• Justice
• Loopmancer
• Warhammer 40,000: Darktide
• Marauders
• Microsoft Flight Simulator
• Midnight Ghost Hunt
• Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
• Naraka Bladepoint
• NVIDIA Omniverse
• NVIDIA Racer RTX
• Perish
• Portal With RTX
• Ripout
• S.T.A.L.K.E.R 2: Heart of Chornobyl
• Scathe
• Sword and Fairy 7
• SYNCED
• The Lord of the Rings: Gollum
• The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
• THRONE AND LIBERTY
• Tower of Fantasy
• Unity
• Unreal Engine 4 & 5